The San Francisco Bay Guardian last week auctioned off two vehicles owned by the SF Weekly as it tries to collect the multi-million-dollar judgment it was awarded in the predatory pricing trial against the Weekly and its parent company New Times, now known as Village Voice Media. The Guardian, which seized the vehicles in November, says the move "prove[s] wrong the predictions of New Times executives that the Guardian would never collect a cent on its judgment." VVM maintains that it won't owe the Guardian any money until its appeals are completed.

Continue ReadingBay Guardian Seizes and Auctions Off SF Weekly Vehicles

The Society of Publication Designers takes a look at the work being done at the Observer by art director Alexander Flores, who says he does almost all of the cover work himself. The SPD highlights a collection of Flores' covers that are quite diverse; the art director says that's intentional. "I try look at the paper as a collective volume; I try to not design similar-looking covers in tone, color palette, style, etc. in consecutive weeks," he says. "I want to make sure that the readers notice the new issue on the stand and pick that one up too, instead of not, because from 10 feet away it looks like last week's issue which they already grabbed."

Continue ReadingSPD: Dallas Observer’s Covers Among ‘Most Creative of Any Publication’

Instead of bringing Going Rogue to be signed, an attendee at a recent Palin appearance at the Mall of America brought a copy of the Nov. 18 City Pages issue that parodied Palin's book cover, featuring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in place of Palin, with the title Going Crazy. The former vice presidential candidate "smiled vapidly at everyone and started to sign it, apparently not noticing it wasn't her face on the cover image," City Pages reports. "Unfortunately one of her handlers yanked the paper away at the last second and tossed it in the corner."

Continue ReadingSarah Palin Almost Signs City Pages Parody Cover

Just last week we noted that medical marijuana-related advertising was filling up the pages of Denver's Westword; now a medical marijuana website is calling on shops that advertise in L.A. Weekly to pull their ads. The boycott, proposed by the site WeedTRACKER, comes after the paper ran a cover story that looked at Los Angeles' inability to regulate the city's medical marijuana shops. "The person who calls for the boycott obviously wasn't pleased with what we found," Patrick Range McDonald writes, "even though the Weekly takes local politicians to task for allowing non-permitted, opportunistic pot shops to give a compassionate cause -- the legal use of medical marijuana by truly sick people -- a very public black eye."

Continue ReadingWebsite Calls for Medical Marijuana Ad Boycott Against L.A. Weekly